Stef's Blog - a native London Southlander and unrepentant 'Conspiraloon™' who doesn't trust anyone, not even himself. Sometimes I take pictures. I also enjoy swearing immensely and think much faster than I can type, so each post comes guaranteed to include at last one confusing typo. OK?

Monday, July 25, 2011

Truth? Where's the market for that?

In the UK, back in the days before the Internet, it was possible to make a fairly reliable estimation of an individual's political viewpoint based on the title of newspaper they had under their arm; The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, The Daily Sport and all the rest, each had a particular target demographic. The biases were unashamed and undenied

The priority for the readers of those newspapers was not the quality of research, or the writing, or the photography or any of that nonsense. Their top concern, first and foremost, was to read material which presented events in a way that was most pleasing to their pre-existing world viewCuriously, apolitical readers of the back pages of newspapers often genuinely were interested in non-partisan, well-written, well researched articles, accompanied by decent photography. Which is why you could sometimes screw up guessing a person's politics by their choice of newspaper, if they'd only bought it for the sports coverage

The reason why I'm raising the subject of people prioritising their world-view ahead of their thirst for objectivity is that I've just finished reading Webster Tarpley's take on the recent massacre in Norway...

Washington DC, July 24, 2011 – The tragic terror attacks in Norway display a number of the telltale signs of a false flag provocation...

As I was reading the piece I was overcome with the same sense of frustrated tedium that I've been feeling recently as I plough through most of the 'alternative' news and commentary on the web. In that respect, I'm not singling Tarpley out. His article on Behring Breivik simply typifies the laziness that I think is corrupting alternative analyses of current events

What's my problem with Tarpley's piece?

For starters this 'number of telltale signs of false flag terror' stuff is way too reminiscent of the cliched 'all the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda' nonsense that mainstream commentators trot out five seconds after anything bad happens in the world

And the parallels with mainstream presstitution don't end there. Tarpley and countless other 'Truthers' started banging out their analyses of the massacre whilst the bodies were still warm. The result was not informed commentary but mounds of speculative verbiage - where the absence of facts and carefully thought out conclusions was compensated for by a pile of 'what ifs' and 'maybes'

And whilst I'm on the subject of carefully thought out conclusions, the last time I looked the whole purpose of a 'false flag op' was to create the appearance that it was carried out by another entity. So how does framing up reactionary white supremacist lunatics 'punish' the Norwegian state for refusing to bomb Libya or, as others are writing, for its friendly relations with Palestine?

If this were a false-flag op to punish Norway wouldn't the idea be to implicate Libya, or Palestine, or Muslims in general? Why would Zionist or other establisment gangs stage an atrocity which discredits an ideology they've worked like bastards to cultivate and which they need to maintain now more than ever?

The Muzzers are soooooo going to catch it for this one

There's no serious critical or original thought going on in Tarpley's piece; no more than in most of the other alternative commentary I've read. The writers are just simply filtering through the material as it becomes available and cherry-picking that which fits their pre-established narratives. The end result is a certainty of conclusion that is a 'characteristic hallmark' of the most blinkered, the most confirmation-bias afflicted and the most thoughtless

23 comments:

Trouble is, there's no certain guide to the truth about the real world and when people turn to violence the truth is often concealed by by a bodyguard of lies. So speculation, inference from circumstantial evidence -- the hallmarks of this or that, etc. -- is about all that anyone has to go on.

But it is true the exercise can be done well or badly or with intent to deceive, which makes me wonder what Tarpley's about, since from time to time, if not all the time, he engages in what is clearly the willful propagation of total bollocks.

And you are right about the polarization between MMS and Alt media. Readers of the MSM want reassurance that they live in the best possible of all possible worlds and readers of the Alt media tend to believe that they're being scammed and want to know who's responsible. The two branches inevitably tend to cater to their particular audiences.

Personally speaking my antipathy towads the Queen does not come from a Tarpleyesque belief that she controls the world from behind the scenes but from the fact that her role is the cornerstone of a system of aristocracy and inherited privilege

And I've dealt with enough of the higher classes to appreciate that their privilege is in not any way warranted or deserved

They're not more beautiful, more clever, more intelligent, honourable or hard-working. They just had the good fortune to drop out of a particular womb

Scrap that network of parasites and a dialogue about how best to run a state, if a state it must be, might be possible

What they are doing is making a case in support of their own point of view and passing it off as objective analysis. And, like a paid lawyer arguing a case, they have no interest whatsover in drawing attention to any evidence that their argument is flawed

Behaviour wise it is no different to how mainstream media operate

You wouldn't need, for example, to postulate that Jones is a covert Zionist operative to explain why he goes so easy on Israel and The Lobby and prefers to take pot shots at the Redcoats or the Pope. A good portion of his target demographic are Christian fundamentalists with Biblical Zionist leanings. Piss them off and you lose market share and don't sell so many gold coins and water filters

Bias, not 'truth', is what the majority of people want. Otherwise somebody would be making a living serving it up

"if the shooter was that concerned about Muslim demographic take-over you would have thought he wouldn't have helped hurry the process up"

The assumption has to be that he was attacking enemies within the gate. That is why one might conclude that Breivik is attempting to precipitate a civil insurrection against the ruling elite and their hangers on.

It is certainly seems odd to the modern mind that someone should acquire a job by inheritance. But if it works, why worry about it.

I question, though, whether the monarch is "the cornerstone of a system of aristocracy and inherited privilege".

It was the aristocracy and smaller landowners who downed the Stewarts, and ensconced themselves in power in Parliament. Through powers they granted themselves in Parliament, the landowning classes enclosed the common land, thereby making it worthwhile to invest in agricultural improvement, which resulted in the (second) agricultural revolution.

The rural labour thus made redundant was then available to work the factories that the newly enriched landowners were investing in.

So in fact you could say that the monarchy, by acting as a (slight) check on the power of Parliament, serves the interest of the common people more than that of the aristocracy.

In fact, that was the implication of Malcolm Muggeridge's article that got him banned by the BBC, he said among other things, that the aristocracy looked down on the Queen as dowdy and ordinary, whereas ordinary housewives adored her. I think there is some significance in this.

I am puzzled that Craig Murray, whose intellect I admire, has so many empty-headed and vicious followers. Are these the characteristics of liberals in general? Perhaps so. The liberal left has been in the ascendant for a long time, with the result, it seems, that many have become complacent, vain and bigotted.

The assumption has to be that he was attacking enemies within the gate. That is why one might conclude that Breivik is attempting to precipitate a civil insurrection against the ruling elite and their hangers on

Ah, the Charlie Manson option

And one based on many flawed assumptions, not least that the masses, whilst discontent, like the look of the alternative being offered

That, and the mass murder of defenceless people thing

Not an especially bright or clear-thinking 'Genuince Crusader' then

I note that David Duke and Co. are rethinking their association with certain Zionist-funded European White Nationalist loonbobs...

As somebody with an Italian Catholic background I'm mindful of the fact that in the past the David Duke's of this world didn't care much for wops, micks, latinos and blacks long before they even knew what a Muslim was

Now they've recently discovered that we're actually all on the same team and need to unite to defend our European Christian heritage

Once that's been secured they can get back to hating wops, micks, latinos and blacks again

I think John Robb's book "Brave New War" predicted the emergence of events somewhat like this. He has a brief post on the Templar thing here : http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2011/07/journal-knights-templar.html

Exaggerations aside the timing and target of this thing stinks and he looks like an Oswald type patsy to me with the same old Columbine style more shooters than there are supposed to be problem.How did the coppers who finally turned up to stop him know his name already!?The cui bono list is again very small and very familiar.

Robb's peddling the idea that global terrorism is proliferating in an open source kind of way, all sorts of disaffected groups are learning to make bombs whith chapati flour and chewing gum via the internet and we're all potential terrorists now

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